Italian counter-terrorism authorities are monitoring several dozen Italian Muslims who have obtained combat experience in Syria and are now promoting jihad, or holy war, in Italy.
Somewhere between 45 and 50 Italian citizens -- mostly Muslim immigrants from North Africa, but also some Italian converts to Islam -- have been to Syria at least once to fight alongside rebel forces seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Many of these individuals, including several women, have returned to Italy and are using the Internet to spread jihadist propaganda and to communicate with other Islamic radicals.
Some of the Italian jihadists have links with a Belgian Salafist group, "Sharia4Belgium," and are actively seeking to recruit fellow Muslims to overthrow the democratic order in Italy, according to Italian law enforcement officials.
The revelations were made after a 24-year-old convert to Islam, Giuliano Ibrahim Delnevo, became the first Italian to die in Syria. Delnevo, who was raised in a Roman Catholic home in the northern Italian port city of Genoa, converted to Islam at the age of 20 after meeting a woman during a visit to Morocco.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Il Giornale, the director of Italy's Security Intelligence Department (DIS), Giampiero Massolo, said that Delnevo became increasingly radicalized due to exposure to Islamic propaganda on the Internet. » | Soeren Kern | Tuesday, July 09, 2013
